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The Right's Misogyny

Pro-lifers' often over-simplify their arguments. While
they ground their arguments in scriptural interpretation and legal language,
they make no reference to the social, economic or historical context
of women's lives that create the need for women's reproductive freedom.
This lack of context gives credibility to a debate about morality that
ignores women's reality. Many anti-abortion groups, both conservative Christian
and secular, promote extremely traditional family structures and are
explicitly anti-feminist. Most attribute women's use of abortion to
a so-called disintegration of traditional family values, the alleged
promiscuity of poor women, permissiveness supposedly
promoted by liberalism, and the secularization
of American culture.

Mirroring a common practice by the right in general, anti-choice
activists claim ownership of the debate on women's
issues. Although silent about women's role in the process of abortion (where
the focus is on the fetus), pro-life advocates aggressively categorize
women who seek abortions as "selfish" or sinful, because they
do not place the value of the fetus above themselves.

"Traditional family values," as defined by such
spokespeople for the Christian Right as Gary
Bauer or Jerry Falwell, rely on a willingness
by both men and women to accept the sex roles
inherent in a heterosexual, nuclear family. In this context, a woman
must abstain from sex until marriage, marry, maintain a monogamous relationship
with her husband, and willingly bear him children.
Any diversion from this track - such as pre-marital or extra-marital
sex, deciding on her own how many children to have, or living as a lesbian
-- is not only alien to the principles of a conservative evangelical Christian
family, it is self-indulgent and sinful. A woman who refuses to place
the needs of others (the fetus, in particular) ahead of her own is not
making the sacrifices required of family members to maintain these principles.

The Christian Right considers social,
economic, or for that matter any other reasons that may influence a woman's
thinking about her pregnancy as secondary to
this principle of maintaining strict family traditions. In this rigidly
traditional vision of the family, a woman who describes her pregnancy
as "unwanted" is refusing to accept her natural role as wife,
mother, and childcare provider. And any woman who lives, acts, or even
thinks outside that prescribed role threatens such a system. In this
frame, it becomes legitimate to criticize, shame, and even demonize her.
Such a worldview, which describes itself as "profamily," is
more accurately anti-woman.16

While the Christian Right has correctly
identified such "uppity women" and the feminist movement
that supports them as threats to its traditional perspective, the more
secular right also condemns women who renounce their traditional roles.
In this case, it is not God who is being defied,
but the needs of society for strong traditional families and adherence
to sex roles as a necessary component of the
family. 17